Simply Faithful: What markers are at your corners?

It was slightly irreverent, but I snapped the picture of bird poop on the labyrinth sign anyway because it fit my mood — because it seemed to symbolize my own path, my own crooked maze through life.

Oh, there wasn’t a big catastrophe going on, just my own smelly thinking that needed to be cleaned away that day. I had hoped time in the beauty of Tinker Nature Park would settle my soul a bit, so I walked by summer’s blooms, stopped to say thanks to the buzzing beehives and meandered over to the labyrinth, still thinking pretty poorly of myself and my accomplishments when I saw the pooped-on sign.

I laughed out loud and wished my husband was a little closer so I could wave him over and share the joke. Instead, I snapped a picture and took a few steps into the labyrinth to read a brick at one of the curves. REVERENT, it said. Then, I noticed another said HELPFUL. LOYAL and FRIENDLY came at other corners.

Interesting, I thought. Every time the path changed direction, there was a chance to focus on something useful, something that mattered to ourselves and others.

In my life, I often approach changes in plans with FEAR, with NEGATIVITY and ANXIETY.

But the labyrinth reminded me there are other options, even when there’s poop on the sign.

What markers — what words — are at your corners? What do you turn toward?

— Marketta Gregory is a former religion reporter who can’t stop writing about what is sacred and holy. She is a native of Oklahoma but makes her home in Rochester, New York, with her husband, two crazy boys and one very vocal Pomeranian. Find more of her writing at SimplyFaithful.com or check out her book, “Simply Faithful: Finding the Sacred in Everyday Life.”

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